Gushue’s renewed Olympic dream brings him to Kitchener

Trials spots on the line at Road to the Roar event

The Olympic curling dream is still alive for the two dozen rinks set to compete at this week’s Capital One Road to the Roar competition.

Skip Brad Gushue (centre), his front end of lead Geoff Walker (left) and second Brett Gallant, and third Brett Gallant (not shown) are among 12 men’s teams looking to fill two remaining openings at the Canadian Olympic trials. — Canadian Press file photo

However, the road to the Sochi Games remains a long one. Only four teams will advance to the final qualification stage and it won’t be easy to get there given the quality of competition at the tournament, which begins today.

Champions from every major level will be in the field for the triple-knockout event at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium Complex. Gold medallists from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the 2006 Turin Games are on hand along with former world champions and the reigning Tim Hortons Brier champ.

The goal is to reach next month’s Canadian Olympic curling trials in Winnipeg, an event that already has 12 of the 16 available spots booked. The four remaining openings — two for the men and two for the women — will be filled by the end of play Sunday.

“It is a unique event — 12 teams for two spots,” national champion Brad Jacobs said of the men’s draw in a recent interview. “If you don’t bring your ’A’ game (this) week, forget about your Olympic dreams. Really that’s what it comes down to.”

Jacobs guided his Northern Ontario rink to victory at the Brier this year and followed it up with a silver medal at the world championships. He’ll be challenged this week by seasoned veterans like 2010 Olympic champion John Morris, 2006 Olympic champion Brad Gushue of St. John’s and 2006 world silver medallist Jean-Michel Menard of St-Romuald, Que.

Morris, who teamed with skip Kevin Martin to win a world title in 2008 and Olympic gold in Vancouver, split from Martin’s rink last spring. He later joined Jim Cotter’s Kelowna, B.C., team and will handle skip duties while Cotter throws last stones.

The men’s skips that have already qualified include Kevin Martin and Kevin Koe, both from Edmonton, Glenn Howard of Coldwater, Ont., John Epping of Toronto and Mike McEwen and Jeff Stoughton, both from Winnipeg.

Skip Brad Gushue (centre), his front end of lead Geoff Walker (left) and second Brett Gallant, and third Brett Gallant (not shown) are among 12 men’s teams looking to fill two remaining openings at the Canadian Olympic trials. — Canadian Press file photo

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Jackie Barrett

November 05, 2013 - 14:27

As a loyal Team Gushue fan, I'm more than appalled at TSN and Rogers Sportsnet for not providing adequate coverage of the "Road to the Roar" or other "Roar of the Rings" qualifiers.
Since the Pre-Trials are an important Curling event as well as being a last chance qualifier for the Olympic Trials "Roar of the Rings", I expected TSN and Rogers Sportsnet to have full coverage of it as opposed to just weekend runs.
As a result, not only are Special Olympics Canada experience significant cuts to their national level media coverage, the same thing is now happening to Curling.
Now I won't get to watch Team Gushue battle their way to a final spot in the Olympic Trials.

HBG

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